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Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)

113. THE FOX AND THE GOAT IN THE WELL
Perry 9 (Phaedrus 4.9)

As soon as someone clever gets into trouble, he tries to find a way out at someone else's expense.
A fox had unwittingly fallen down a well and found herself trapped inside its high walls. Meanwhile, a thirsty goat had made his way to that same place and asked the fox whether the water was fresh and plentiful. The fox set about laying her trap. 'Come down, my friend,' said the fox. 'The water is so good that I cannot get enough of it myself!' The bearded billy-goat lowered himself into the well, whereupon that little vixen leaped up on his lofty horns and emerged from the hole, leaving the goat stuck inside the watery prison.

Note: Caxton (6.3) provides a delightful rebuke of the goat by the fox: 'And thenne the foxe beganne to lawhe and to scorne hym / and sayd to hym / O mayster goote / yf thow haddest be wel wyse with thy fayre berde / or euer thow haddest entryd in to the welle / thow sholdest fyrst haue taken hede / how thow sholdest haue comen oute of hit ageyne.'


Source: Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura Gibbs. Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.